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Tuesday, March 3, 2009

SewConnected | February

It's getting crazy around here. Work's crazy, life's crazy and, to top it all off, our home computer decided to die on us. Man, I hate Windows. Fortunately for me, I work at a tech company and I've got a few resident geeks taking a look at it for me. If nothing else, I am praying that they can rescue all of my family pictures and my 3000+ iTunes songs. As soon as they do, I'm off to the Apple store. Grrrrr ...

OK, enough of that.

February was a great month for both SewConnected groups. In SewConnected 1, Stefanie (aka artsymomma) sent out a truly inspired selection of solids and requested "modern", "linear" blocks. Let me tell you, the blocks that were made for Stef are A-M-A-Z-I-N-G. All of the already awesome quilters in the group really outdid themselves. Take a look at our Flickr page to see all of the modern goodness. (And pop over to Stef's blog to congratulate her on her newborn baby boy!)

When I first became interested in quilting, one of the books that I picked up was the Modern Quilt Workshop, and one of my favorite quilts in that book is the "jigsaw puzzle" quilt (also featured on the cover). I decided to use that quilt as inspiration for Stefanie's block. I loved working with the solids and playing around with their placement. I can't wait to see her quilt after it's assembled!

In the SewConnected 2 group, resident monkey Katy wanted traditional(-ish) blocks made from an array of Liberty fabrics (quite fitting for our UK-based member!) I received several different cuts of some of the most striking and original prints that I've ever seen, along with some plain linen for contrast.

I went very traditional with my first block -- a double windmill-type block highlighting my favorite fabric: the one with the horses (although it seems that I wasn't too successful in my fussy cutting -- I see more horse butts than I do heads!)

For my second block, I went somewhat less traditional with this block of my own design. Unfortunately, the pictures don't do the fabrics any justice. I love the flowers in blues and khakis, as well as the paisleys that I used around the edges. For contrast, I used a khaki-colored Kona solid.

Umm, yeah ... so I couldn't just stop after 2 blocks. I had plenty of the horse fabric left and really wanted to make sure Katy would be able to feature them in her quilt. I know it's hard to see, but there is some rhyme and reason to this block:

It's actually a pattern resembling four quarter-log cabin blocks. I know the pattern gets lost with all of the different prints going on, but I kind of like its craziness.

At this point I still wasn't out of fabric and couldn't resist starting a fourth. I didn't want a single scrap to go to waste! I decided to make another "X" block, but replacing the khaki with a solid pale blue (also Kona) that matched the blue of the Liberty fabric perfectly.

At this point, I actually did come up a bit short. If Katy likes this block (and I hope she does!), she'll need to add the final border from her stash.

I just bought the Modern Quilt Workshop yesterday, and I love it. I'm gearing myself up to try Love Beads. I'm scared of the circles, but really what's the worst that happens if it goes poorly? I toss it in the trash. Why do I build this up as such a big thing for myself?

Wow, John, you have OUTDONE yourself! Each block is more spectacular than the last! I would love to work with some Liberty prints, but the cost is prohibitive. And to think how scared I'd be to cut into it...

First off, I vote for a new iMac for you! Go John... you will never go back to a Windows based PC.

Second, I am loving all your blocks. Especially the one inspired by the Modern Quilt Workshop book. I love that book, have it and look at it often. By the way, like you I see mostly horse butts too in the one block. But in the subsequent blocks you make up for it.

WOW! My husband loves to make those rag quilts, and often get's teased about it. I stole your link from V&Co's giveaway. Hope you don't mind. I may even add you to my list. Love the ideas that you have here.

Hello - it's Bill Kerr here, co-author (with my wife, Weeks Ringle) of the Modern Quilt Workshop. Someone pointed me in the direction of your blog and I love seeing what you've done with the Zipper pattern from the book. We put so much time into our books and it's always great to see how people adapt the quilts to fit their own styles. Nice work!